I don't think my days of misfortune ended yet.
"Um, Sensei. Are you even listening?"
In front of me is a black-haired girl with dark eyes. She's holding a sheet of paper with printed and handwritten words—a test paper. Also, there is a lot of red ink sprawling on it.
The girl pouts, "Sensei, you're not doing your job, you're supposed to teach us. Or me. Just me is fine. Hehe…"
What she said is almost true. Behind her are her classmates, chatting and laughing as if they don't see me here. I'm not saying they're bad kids, instead they are too smart. Black Book High only accepts student who got really high score on their former school's science exams. They don't need someone to teach things they already know. And the school prefers it this way, so I was told just to sit in my seat and watch them.
What use is a teacher if the students are already smart?
"Sensei, listen to me. I don't understand why I failed science again."
(๑✪ᆺ✪๑)
Well, except for this student who keeps shouting 'anyeong' or something.
She moans and patters her shoes on the floor as she desperately waits for my attention.
I take the sheet off of her. She claps happily, as if relief I finally give her existence a chance. Dark eyes twinkling. Her name is written at the top of the page: Nelia. She don't put her last name again but that's not the problem here.
19%. F
ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ Nelia grins as she scratches her back head. Her short-sleeve drops, exposing her clean armpit.
I use my finger to point it out, "Have you ever thought of getting a new and fitting school shirt?"
As if realizing what I said, Nelia pushes down her arms to hide it. "O—oh, I'm sorry, Sensei," she leans over my desk. Her dark-head poking over the paper.
"Step back a little," I demand.
She pouts, "But I wouldn't know where you're reading."
"Why would you want to know that?"
She chuckles, "So I can explain why I answered it like that, dummy."
The worst student in my class just called me a dummy. Also, I don't need explanations for your wrong answers. She continues, pointing at one question. "Like this one, it asks for the most important organ in a human's body."
My eyes review the question.
"You answered… lips."
"Yes!"
No.
She steps back and pushes her bouncy lips. Her glowing lips are tight and exposed. "Look, this is important for humans. This must be the top priority to defend against anything dangerous out there."
"Well, no. Thank you for your opinion," my words crawling, hoping it'd get into her head. This kind of brain needs to take everything at half a second speed. I'm not mocking, I'm caring.
She pouts, "But… but the lips is not an organ?"
"It is."
"So I can use them to kiss you?"
"No. Though lips are part of many organs, the question wants the most important ones."
"But lips are very important to me."
If science is about you, human civilization will never advance.
"How about this?" She pushes her perked breast up. "These are very important organs too right?"
I glance away, "Put those down."
"If you say so."
This is going to take forever.
This girl will take nothing seriously when she's with me.
I sigh and point at her chair. "Pull that beside me and sit down. I'll explain everything you got wrong," I say, knowing it'd be just a rocky path to go through with her.
Her eyes glaze over me.
"What are you waiting for?"
She shakes her head and makes a small jump. "Sensei, thank you. And to think this is all just for me…"
"Nelia... Just do what I said. You're going to give me more headaches than I already have now."
She does what I asked—but she also does what I didn't ask for. She puts her elbows on my desk as she steeples her slender fingers. Her black eyes are looking at me with interest.
Once again, I'm going to teach the mysterious idiot. Why do I call her mysterious? Well, she did just transferred here suddenly—also without a basic knowledge of science at that. Most people would know the answer is brain as the most important organ in our body. At first I thought she's acting like this intentionally but turns out she's really just bad at the subject. How did she get into this school? Maybe she'd pulled a connection who knows, I don't really care about that.
Sometimes it feels useless to teach her anything about science. But this time, it could be different. I begin. "Listen here, Nelia."
I said that, but I know better she'd be staring at me until these ends than listening. I guess I'll be teaching myself.
————————————————————————
Ten minutes of explaining is tiring. A sigh escapes from me.
"Hmm? Sensei, is something troubling you?" Nelia looks worried. As I already expected, her eyes were mostly on me all this time. Hey, worry about your test paper.
"You."
She laughs, "Stop the tease, Sensei."
No, I actually meant it, but it's not like you're going to take that seriously. I decide to push her question away. "It's nothing… Let's go back to reviewing the questions."
"Ah, jjinja? You're not worried about something else, right? Is it about the Occult Clubroom?"
My head jerks.
I look at her in question.
She just keeps her smile.
I couldn't help but to ask, "How do you know that? It's too specific to call it a guess."
"Hm, why, yes, it's not a guess."
"Then how?" The meeting was just an hour ago. What happens in the teacher's meeting should never be known to any student. But now, Nelia is saying things as if she knew. Did someone tell her?
Her small fangs poke out,
"Huh?" Sometimes, Nelia speaks in korean because I think she is one. Not that I know her like that.
"Sensei is showing an interesting face right now."
"Yeah, I'm curious."
"Hee… I thought this kind of story is way too young for you."
"Who've you heard it from?"
"Hm? No one."
"No… one?"
"Umn. No one."
"Then how would you know I've been assigned to take care of the occult room?"
"Assign?"
(=ↀωↀ=)
She slaps her cheek with wide eyes, "Sensei... You're the Occult Club's homeroom teacher now?"
I was thinking she was playing me, but that reaction is too genuine to be fake. "Hold on, you never knew that?"
Nelia shakes her head. "No… I didn't know that."
"What? Then what's this about the occult club you're saying then?"
She gives me a grin and scratches her cheek gently, "Well, I was meaning about there being rumours that the Occult Room is haunted. And it's becoming pretty worse lately that even some students have taken a picture of proof that… um, ghost exists," she says in the most innocent tone. "I thought you were disturbed by the rumor, and you were feeling troubled by that… But it looks like Sensei had it worse."
Oh…
"Sensei… You'll be the homeroom of Occult Clubroom?" She asks, as if to confirm it with me.
There is no use hiding it now. The cat is already out of the bag. "Yeah, it seems like it."
"But I don't remember anyone signing up to be there. Students I meant. Will there even be any students you'll be managing?"
I shake my head again, "No."
She heaves a sigh and smiles, "That's unfortunate, Sensei. You must be lonely there."
"I wouldn't know. Maybe I'll befriend the rumoured ghost around there."
She chuckles, but then swallows it down and gives me a serious look. That is something she could do, but rarely. Her eyes contact, never wavering on me. "Sensei… Do you want me to join?"
I give her a frown.
"I don't need that, Nelia. There's nothing you can gain by joining the club."
But her eyes insist, "I could be the President!"
I sigh, "Take my advice only this time, don't. This year you should use the chance to join another positive club with positive activities. You'll need it to graduate."
She leans closer, "But!"
And I say, "I don't want you there."
We freezes.
I was about to say sorry and I didn't mean anything bad, but Nelia shakes her head, breaking our eyes lock. "I completely understand."
I sigh in relief. At least she got it.
"Okay, now let's go back to reviewing the question."
She shakes her head again. "No… I think that's enough. Thank you for all your help, Sensei."
She makes a disappointed face and grabs her sheet and chair. And return to her seat, leaving me alone.
It's for the better, Nelia. You don't have to follow me around and affect your school life just because of a little crush you have in me.